5 Common Mistakes In Hiring

Do you know the biggest mistakes employers make in hiring? One of the biggest challenges we find is that sales professionals and business owners think they can find somebody who is both people-oriented and great on follow-through and detailed work.

The five common mistakes employers make in hiring are:

-I need a body right now.

The manager hires out of desperation and it is common when the manager finds himself overwhelmed. Maybe somebody just quit or the manager received a number of leads and does not know how to get the transactions closed or tasks accomplished.

-Hiring close family, friends or referrals without any evaluation.

We have known a client for a while who continues to hire her close friends and family members without evaluating whether they are the best fit for the position.
She finds it difficult to motivate and get any worthwhile performance out of these employees. Teamwork is a struggle and she seems frustrated. She feels that there is a magic bullet which will solve her problems.

Unless she starts hiring the person who is most suitable for the position instead of using nepotism, she will always have this challenge.

Unfortunately I have been guilty of this as well and it cost me money, time and relationships.

-No process to screen candidates.

Most sales professionals and managers are quick decision makers and do not have the necessary patience to do the due diligence before hiring people. It sounds simple, but it is hard for people who pride themselves on their quick thinking and decision-making ability to slow down and go through all the steps necessary to get well-qualified people.

Why is this attitude a major business risk? Just using your gut feel to make a hiring decision is not a smart idea. Again, most managers are not trained in this skill.

-Hiring the candidate who is just like you.

This individual reminds you of yourself when you were younger. You have a good gut feeling about this person.

Many managers tend to hire a person with whom they feel comfortable. Of course, you like people who are like you or remind you of yourself. If the candidate is too much like you, then why are you hiring your clone? It is rarely a good idea to hire your clone.

-You hate to do the work that you should be doing.

Let us say that you hate detailed paper work and you are poor in following through. You feel that all you need to do is to hire somebody who likes that work and is competent at it and your worries will go away.

Do not make that mistake. Before you hire such a person, learn the basics of that job for two reasons. One reason is that the person who walks in to do that job will definitely need you to give her orientation and training before she can be productive. Secondly, that person's style of work will differ from your style by necessity. If you cannot appreciate her role and how she functions, you will be a poor manager.

Ref: Minesh Baxi

Lean Mean Business Machine

Lean manufacturing's main keys are the following:


* Perfect first-time quality - quest for zero defects, revealing and solving problems at the source


* Waste minimization - eliminating all non value-adding activities and safety nets, maximization of scarce resources (capital, people and space)


* Continuous improvement - reducing costs, improving quality, increasing productivity and information sharing, pull processing: products are pulled from the consumer end, not pushed from the production end


* Flexibility - producing different mixes or greater diversity of products quickly, without sacrificing efficiency at lower volumes of production, building and maintaining a long term relationship with suppliers through collaborative risk sharing, cost sharing and information sharing arrangements.


The world’s economy today is always changing and more competitive than ever. There are new companies created everyday and old ones tightening their grip on their thrifty empires. For any of these companies to remain successful or become successful, they must find a way to stay on top of their game and please the customer better than ever before. Increasingly, successful companies are turning to lean business practices (lean manufacturing, lean customer service, lean office, lean distribution, lean public sector) as the answer to staying on top of their industry. Lean 5S is not necessarily a particular way of producing a product. It is instead a philosophical way of thinking.

McDonald's can be said to have recently implemented a lean technique. McDonald's no longer makes an abundance of food to wait in holding bins in anticipation of a meal time rush. If a rush does not happen, then there is an obvious waste of food as well as labor. Instead, McDonald's has focused on making the food when the customer orders to provide a fresher and hotter meal. A focus on consistent labor training and improvement is the key to keeping this service speedy and reliable. By implementing this new "leaner" way of thinking, waste of food and labor has been minimized, which is the main goal of the lean process.

Lean manufacturing was actually born in 1914 with Henry Ford and the mass production moving assembly line. Lean relies on keeping a steady flow of product out the door to the customer. Ford's system did exactly that, though it was missing some of the most important and common factors in today's lean philosophy. The original Ford assembly line was putting out thousands of Model T cars at a vast rate. The problem was that it did not matter what the customer demand or requests were; there was a base black Model T available. They didn't worry about customer satisfaction or demand whatsoever. The Ford motor company stuck with mass production and had a large stock of inventory (waste) just sitting around. Although Toyota is credited with beginning Lean Production with their Toyota Production System, the roots of "lean" date back as far as the 16th century. In 1570, King Henry III of France watched in amazement as the Venice Arsenal built galley ships in less than an hour using the continuous flow process.

Later in the 1940's The Toyoda Loom Company had problems of its own. After World War II when Japanese industry was decimated, the Toyoda family decided to extend Toyoda Automatic Loom Company to start an automotive company. They had some cash but did not have the infrastructure. They certainly could not compete directly with the established companies like Ford. Therefore, their sole demand was in Japan, which meant supplying small quantities with high variety, while Ford was selling any color Model T you wanted as long as it was black. Toyota also had to rely on outside supplier partners to make the capital investment needed to get in business. Taiichi Ohno, leader of the Toyota manufacturing enterprise, came up with a system now called the Toyota Production System (TPS). He did not do this alone though. Ohno diligently studied Henry Ford and his company’s philosophies on manufacturing. Toyota and Japan had the problems of not enough space, resources, or demand to compete with the larger automobile manufacturers of America. By assessing and solving these problems, Ohno began the TPS and the manufacturing revolution known today as Lean Manufacturing.

After WWII, Ford was ten times more productive than Toyota, but between 1945 and 1970, Ohno's Toyota Production System was revolutionizing the Japanese automobile industry. It was during this time the rest of the world and particularly the United States started realizing the overwhelming benefits of lean manufacturing. The U.S. auto industry paid particular notice when The Machine that Changed the World was published highlighting the great accomplishments of Toyota and the huge gap between Japanese quality and productivity and auto companies in the West. The book coined the term "lean manufacturing" because Toyota was doing more with less of everything - less space, less people, less capital and less inventory.

As said before, Lean’s main goal is to eliminate or at least minimize waste. Lean 5S also seeks to streamline the workflow throughout the production process. By eliminating waste, a lean system eliminates variability in the process itself and in the cycle time of materials. The cycle time is the length of time production materials spend in process, while processing time is the length of time required to process any particular item at any given workstation. By eliminating variability within these two lean concepts, companies become more efficient, and are able to reduce the final costs of producing a customer-demanded quality product. Reducing variability is a core objective of Lean. In fact, variability reduction could be defined as Lean in action. Some of the benefits of reducing variability or practicing lean principles are shorter cycle times, shorter lead times, faster response times to customer demands, lower costs, greater flexibility, higher quality, better customer service, and higher revenue. Certainly, these are all elements of creating a successful company, capable of meeting the changing demands of a highly-competitive marketplace.

The International Society of SixSigma provides the acronym DOTWIMP for recalling the seven wastes associated with Lean:

· Defects : A defect is defined as anything produced through the process that the customer is not satisfied with or is unwilling to pay for. Usually referred to as errors, defects disrupt the production process and require a greater final investment to produce a product for profit. Initially, most defects require less production time to produce than the intended high-quality product. This is because most defects occur because at least some facet of the production process was skipped or missed. In the end, however, defects are cost nightmares for companies. The additional steps they add to the production process are exponential, since most steps in the process are repeated. In addition, the intrinsic costs are immeasurable. Lack of customer confidence, added customer operating costs, and dissatisfaction with the purchased products are all end costs of defects that destroy company profits and longevity in the marketplace.

· Overproduction : Think back to the Ford model of production in the early 1900's. What value did the hundreds of excess Model T’s create? In essence, they only created greater expenses for the company. Valuable resources were tied up in goods that could not be readily sold. This creates wasted time, labor and resources that could be allocated to other areas, such as customer needs, process improvement, or business growth.

· Transportation : This deals with the movement of raw materials from vendors, to parts through the production process, to the finished goods reaching the end user. Lean seeks to streamline this movement so that unnecessary handling of raw materials, excess movement of parts, and increased steps in the distribution process are eliminated.

· Waiting : One of the major problems with the Ford assembly line approach is that not all steps are in synchronization with each other. One step might require five minutes of labor to complete, while the following step might require only two minutes to complete. Obviously, when this is the case a disruption of movement will occur, and the process will be in a "waiting" mode. Lean works to eliminate or minimize this waiting period by combining some steps and separating others, so that each step is more closely matched to the ones before and after. This reduces the amount of time an employee has to sit idle while being paid.

· Inventory : When Toyota began developing into an automobile manufacturing facility, they were forced to eliminate as many additional costs as possible. One way they did this was to eliminate capital resources sitting unused in their parts warehouse. They realized that if their revenue was tied up into parts that could not be turned around into saleable goods in an efficient manner, then they would most likely not survive as a young company. Instead, they worked closely with their supply partners to receive inventory that was needed to manufacture goods in accordance with customer demand. The goods were then sold more quickly, and greater cash flow was created to purchase the next order of parts from suppliers.

· Motion : Hours and hours of production are wasted seconds. Lean addresses this problem by streamlining the production process at the workstation itself. If a worker takes minutes to find the parts needed to complete their step in the process, Lean finds a way to make the parts more accessible, thereby reducing the minutes to seconds. This might not seem like much of a waste reduction, but consider this model. One worker uses one screw per product in their step in the process. The same worker produces one hundred of these products each workday. The worker must stoop down below the work table each time the screw is needed. This step takes thirty seconds, or 3000 seconds per 100 products. By placing the screw bin in front of the worker at shoulder height, the worker can retrieve the screw with less effort and in only 10 seconds. This motion reduction has saved 2000 seconds per 100 products. When calculating the end cost of this reduction annually, it becomes obvious how reduced motion saves money as well as time. This simple example can save a company as much as 137 production hours over the course of a year. These costs really start to add up when one considers that there are several production steps involved in creating a product for sale. Ergonomically, reducing physical motion decreases cumulative trauma disorders associated with time and expense loss due to injury.

· Processing : This concept can take on several dynamics. It can be simplified to say that any flaw in the process which creates a slowdown in production, a disruption of the process flow, or an increase in needed labor greatly increases a company's initial investment to create a desired result. This, of course, creates a greater cost, which hinders a company's ability to remain competitive in the marketplace.

Go Lean or Go Home

Lean is currently a hot topic in most major industries and is coming to an industry near you. Practically every type of industry is currently using Lean: distribution centers, electrical, government agencies, manufacturing, mechanical, office, healthcare, customer service and software and system companies. The current big players in lean manufacturing are Cascade Engineering, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and Toyota. The use of lean thinking is being applied to improve competitiveness and accelerate a company's growth by managers and CEO’s alike. Perhaps, the most interesting aspect of Lean is that it does not stop with upper management. Instead, Lean is a philosophy that embraces the worker who actually produces the product or service being bought and sold. Today the leader in manufacturing is the United States, due at least in part to the implementation of lean principles in so many of our industries.

Other industries have taken notice and are now applying lean principles to compete. Channel 9 billionaire James Packer had this to say about Lean, "New management at Channel 9 has launched a concerted attack on its cost base in order to restore margins through eliminating waste, improving efficiency and lowering programming costs."

Companies, no matter how big or small, are switching practices over to Lean methods. Many companies that implemented Lean practices such as General Electric and Hewlett Packard cut their overhead operations by 30% or more. Furthermore sales double and they've continued to grow at an accelerated rate. Companies have experienced this growth and success without cutting jobs, which seems to have been the primary solution used to cut cost in the past.

With such overwhelming evidence, and such compelling arguments, it would seem reasonable that all companies would embrace Lean concepts. This is not always the case. There are two primary reasons some companies are not implementing Lean. Some companies are simply ignorant to Lean methodology and clearly do not understand what is involved in process improvement. Since they are ignorant of these practices, they tend to use older methods with which they are more comfortable. Lean cannot and will not happen overnight. Converting to a Lean system takes time and effort, and results-driven people want immediate results. The other primary reason companies fail to implement Lean practices is that they see process changes as new investments, which of course equals new cost. They have invested such great sums of time and money in their current process, regardless of inefficiencies, they fail to understand that initial costs of Lean processes is simply an investment for future growth and profit.

Lean manufacturing is not a set of isolated techniques. It is a complete business system. By eliminating inherent wastes, Lean creates a new way of designing, a new way of selling, a new way of producing, and most importantly, a new way of involving all employees in improving processes, product quality, and customer satisfaction.

It should be recognized and remembered that Lean is not a final goal that a company works towards. It is an ever-changing way of thinking to make the company the best it can be at all times. Simply put, Lean 5S is making the customer happy by getting them their product in the fastest way possible with the highest quality possible while making the largest profit possible. There is no better way to succeed in today's changing business world. Darwin's idea that it wasn't the strongest species, but the most adaptable species that were able to survive and thrive in the changing world, is equally applied to business. Companies who are consistently able to adapt to the changing needs of their customers, and companies who are able to meet these changes with the fewest costs while producing the greatest profits are the companies who will continue to succeed. These companies understand that Lean is a process, a journey, not an end state.

Author: Mike Ridpath

The Art of Effective Business Communication

With the increase in the use of emails via internet along with graphical text messaging forms, there are better means of communication to make way with words.

Verbal or written, either expressed well can increase the chances of success in any business by many folds. In the multilingual world, communication is a potent tool to persuade the end consumer. It is this communication which makes you land up in a good business relationship and it is the same tool which pulls out of business rift.

You went to attend a conference where speakers worked wonders by just delivering few notable corporate jargons and the final message was communicated to you. And, often you might have come across salesmen who tried pursuing you by using all forms of communication, direct, indirect, verbal and spoken, but you didn’t shudder or respond because of some loopholes in the process of communication.

And at yet another point of time, there might be occasions when you communicated by the expression of your eyes. In the corporate world, communication means a lot where the body language too speaks about you.The essence is to remove the barriers to communication. There should be enough relevance to the subject with evidence to support your argument, and make it work by using proper words. Many times, the quality of the product is of a low grade with less buzz created around the product by not doing enough advertisements and other marketing gimmicks. Rightly, it has been said that “word of mouth” is the best form of advertisement which again proves that nothing can be more rewarding than using the fine mode of communication. If you truly want to learn the art of connecting to people and strike the right chord, make way with words. Whatever styles and mode of communication you adopt, some add-on features will always help you build up style of communication.


* Flower your personality: Do whatever you can do to develop your personality. Learn good etiquettes and maintain your posture while you speak since this forms an important part of your body language. Also maintain a proper dress code for the meetings and client presentations.

* Show concern: When you speak, your eyes should be revealing the truth. Express concern for the person when you communicate.

* Provide necessary details: Some customers want vivid details and inputs of the products or services you handle. Make necessary adjustments and provide all inputs.

* Be wary of your language: This means that words you speak or write should not be harsh or seem offensive. Control always your temper and let the other person (an employee or client) feel that he is special for you.


Mintzberg had proposed three different categories of managerial role and operations, interpersonal, information-sharing and decision-making where all of these are based on active communication.

Kotter on the other hand talked of a general manager’s role which speaks of networking through good relationships which helps them to devise agendas and spending few minutes in meeting asking about things are moving in a business. Again involves communication. A manager needs to a good communicator if he wants to get work done by his subordinate. The success of the whole team depends on an employee’s ability to communicate with his peers and his superior. How effective is your communication is worth noting. So, what you should do to facilitate good communication?


* Set your goals before speaking as to what you want to derive out of your communication process.

* Speak relevant and speak clarity.


· Create space for open communication and address issues on a soft note. · Always try to build up on your communication by taking care of other issues as discussed earlier· Try understanding what others communicate.

In a nutshell, always push yourself for becoming a powerful speaker by using tools of communication in a better way and remove the barriers to communications if any. Communication influences all divisions of an organizations in the form of an internal communication and not just the end consumer.

Ref:
Jaya Sinha

How to Successfully Build Customer Loyalty

In today’s competitive marketplace, the race to increase profits by cultivating customer loyalty is going at full speed. Customer retention is not only a cost-effective and profitable strategy, it is a necessity for businesses wanting to stay ahead of the pack.

As consumers are spending less thanks to soaring fuel and food costs, companies are more reliant than ever on the loyalty of a dedicated customer base to maintain a competitive advantage. Following the Pareto Principle, 80% of your sales come from 20% of your customers, and in a recession the numbers are closer to 95% and 5%, says Ajit Maira, senior vice president of the Information Technology Services Marketing Association. Since these returning customers cost less to reach, are less vulnerable to ploys from the competition and buy more over time, companies need to give customers an incentive not to go elsewhere for the same product or service.

One of the most successful ways to achieve this cost-effective retention is through the use of customer loyalty reward programs. By rewarding the ongoing purchase of product or services, companies achieve long-term relationships with customers. With a variety of loyalty programs available to companies, the key is discovering what works best for your needs and goals.

Build a Strong Foundation

Successful loyalty reward programs are built from a working knowledge of your customer base. To create the foundation, you must first identify the type of customers you want to retain and understand the types of products and services they value most. This information can then be used to determine the kinds of rewards programs that will appeal to them.

To obtain this level of understanding about your customers, it’s vital to conduct targeted research. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, authors Thomas O. Jones and W. Earl Sasser, Jr., suggest utilizing a combination of customer satisfaction surveys, customer feedback and market research. Together, these three tools can help businesses better grasp the wants and needs of the customer to build stronger brand loyalty.

Establish Winning Relationships

While good service is the key to earning customers, it’s not enough to maintain their long-term loyalty. In his book How to Win Customers & Keep Them for Life, author Michael LeBoeuf states, “Smart companies go the extra mile for the customer and show them just how dedicated they are to making sure that they feel good about doing business with them.”

To prove to your customers that your company is going that extra mile, you must show them you are doing just that on a regular basis. For example, Ben McConnell, co-author of Creating Customer Evangelists: How Loyal Customer Become a Volunteer Sales Force, suggests showing customers they are valued by inviting them to lend their opinions on new products and ideas, or invite them to your company’s conferences or meetings. These offers to participate in your company’s operations will promote a feeling of value and inclusion.

It’s also vital to maintain open lines of communication and always treat customers with courtesy. Loyalty is established over time, and customers need to believe that your company values them.

Give Them Incentives

Giving customers incentives to let their purchases be tracked allows you to base loyalty programs on very specific requests and needs. The incentives can help your business to increase customer traffic and sales, and most importantly—allow you to measure the effectiveness of the incentive.

The incentives can vary, and can include immediate rewards like free long-distance phone calls for hotel guests, targeted deals such as exclusive “friends and family” sales events, valuable membership cards offering extras like bonus spending points. Other options are also successful, like manufacturer rewards for items such as brand merchandise and discounts, and point-earning partnerships between retailers and online shopping sites.

Offering these loyalty incentives, also know as frequency marketing, allows your business to build a database of loyal customers that you can target again and again, and with precise tracking.

Follow Through

To reap the rewards of a customer loyalty programs, it is vital to maintain a consistent approach and follow through with your strategy. By staying the course with targeted research, communication and incentives, you can establish a loyal customer base yielding great results.

It's important to remember that customer loyalty can't be established overnight, but the investment required to create a satisfied customer is always worth the effort. Establishing long-lasting, loyal relationships with clients should not be an afterthought in the current market; it's now a fundamental necessity on the road to achieving higher profits and business longevity.

Ref:
Author: R.L Fielding

Localization- More Than Translation

What are the main reasons you leave a website? It doesn’t hold your attention, doesn’t have much to offer, you can’t understand it or it’s offensive in some way? These are all perfect reasons international customers would want to leave your website too. When it comes to getting your information translated not just accurate but localized, it’s a good idea to get it done right.

Most human needs are universal, but it’s the details of people’s cultures, beliefs and views that matter just as much. Marketing a product or service to outside countries takes more than glossy reprints of the same hotel to persuade every one in every country that this would be the place to stay. A more common example where localization is imperative is for products that were made in the U.S. to be used in another country. Products are not just made and then distributed all over without changes being made first. Can you imagine getting a video game made in Japan that was only in Japanese and you couldn’t even attempt to play it? The games created in Japan and played in the U.S. have been localized for the states.

Your company can’t afford not to localize your product or service. And just as importantly, not to over compensate and create the opposite affect. For example advertising your high tech computer software in Japan with a Sumo wrestler and a ninja on the packaging would cause offense to many people in Japan, even though Sumo wrestlers and ninjas are a small part of their culture, you can’t be assuming your audience isn’t forward thinking people, to be so naïve would be the same as shooting yourself and your company in the foot. Localizing your product so that the product spotlight’s the Japanese people as some of the brightest, hard working and progressive people on the planet, will bring your company more results. People are going to buy products for what the products can do for them and of course they are going to respond better to a product that makes them feel secure in their identity too. It’s also so important to remember that unlike American advertising that is saturated in loud black and white phrases, slogans and brutally honest and blatant remarks, in Japan, certain symbols whether it be of nature or animals speak just as loud as our American exclamations. In saying that, where does a company turn to in order to get their product localized right? Trust in the professionals. Several professional translation companies are available to help. You can trust in the big guys and remember, it’s not just your name on the product, it’s theirs too.

Author: 10x Marketing

Using India Exporters For Business

Even though many people may not be aware of the many product industries that India gets involved with as far as the buying and selling of goods is concerned, there is more to India than meets the eye. There are actually a plethora of exporters located within India and the surrounding areas. Many of their products go overseas, such as to the United States and many places throughout Europe.

Chances are that you have seen at least a few products that you use on a daily basis that have the label, "Made in India," or something written on a sticker label to that effect. Indeed, plenty of retailers choose India exporters as their primary place of trading and deals since there is inexpensive labor available as well as plenty of products to choose from and sell.

Small and Large Retail Businesses: If you are a retail organization that needs to find products to sell, India exporters have literally thousands of items to choose from. There are India exporters that specialize in everything from baby products all the way to furniture, toys, and hand tools. When a company outside of India decides that they need to find a new product line or a way to purchase things cheaper for their customers, these companies will often choose to look within India's borders for specific exporting companies that are able to produce the things that they want. On the other hand, this type of labor or production can often be contracted out to exporters within India for a small price, if desired.

Getting Products for Less: Another reason why exporters from India are used is because they are often so much less expensive than those located right inside one's own country. For example, United States' retailers often choose to import products from India's exporters simply because they can increase their profit while giving the exporting companies their business as well! In addition, the products that can be purchased from India are usually of the same or nearly the same quality as those wholesalers located right in the United States.

Exporting products from India also gives the upper hand to consumers as well. Since retailers are paying a small price for the things they import, those cheap prices are passed along to the consumer! In essence, exporting from India is a win-win situation for everyone: the India exporter benefits, the retailer benefits, and the consumer benefits because he or she is able to pay low prices for the items that are bought!

Even though there are some who advise not to export products from India because of the "risks" that supposedly exist, plenty of individuals, businesses, and India exporting customers have found that the transactions go smoothly and the products that are bought and sold are of good quality as well!

All in all, India's exporters have a large size of the market share of the many products that are exported and imported to many places around the world. The United States holds a large proportion of the retailers and business owners that conduct business with exporters from India on a regular basis. But there are plenty of other countries around the world that perform trading deals and purchase transactions from India's exporters as well. India is definitely a popular place to export inexpensive, quality products to many retailers, businesses, and consumers!

Author Resource:- If you are ready to Trade India products we offer an Exporters India trading platform.

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Yahoo! and Microsoft: Hollywood Beef

In todays age of much publicized feuds, the rising tension between Yahoo founders and Microsoft has been very interesting to say the least. A battle between business tyrants, both companies represent billions of dollars raging war on a corporate landscape.

The Details
In a letter to shareholders, Yahoo! brass Jerry Yang and Roy Bostock criticized Microsoft and their collaboration with billionaire Carl Icahn. Within the letter Yang and Bostock both accused Icahn and Microsoft for not standing strong on certain issues and playing a tactical game with the company with respect to the media. Yang feels that the public showing of Microsoft and Icahn's partnership is done in order to undermine the value and assets of Yahoo! Carl Icahn is a key investor of Yahoo! and controls about 5 percent of the company which equals out to 70 millions share.

Microsoft first publicly announced their patnership with Carl Icahn on July 7th, 2008. Microsoft revealed that the collaboration with Icahn was a way to get rid of Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang and to re-attempt a takeover of the company. Icahn had even issued a letter to other shareholders that the takeover of Yahoo! by Microsoft would be very beneficial to them and even Microsoft shareholders. Icahn went on to state that:

"Our company is now moving toward a precipice. It is currently losing market share in its 'search' function; our current board has failed to bring in a talented and experienced CEO to replace Jerry Yang and return Jerry to his role as Chief Yahoo!, and currently it is witnessing a meaningful exodus of talent."

Microsoft has been very pleased by Icahn's assistance and stated that they would only be interested in completing a merger with Yahoo! if the current board on Yahoo! was replaced. Despite the fact that the Microsoft deal has been very much publicized, it is widely known that Microsoft is not the only company that Yahoo! has been in talks with.

Early Yahoo! History
Yahoo! an internet and multimedia giant was founded by Stanford grads Jerry Yang and David Filo in 1994 and has since been one of the leading corporations within the US and abroad with a value of over billions and billions of dollars. Recent statistics show that the company receives about 3.4 billion page views a day and is the second most visited website in the US.

Initially, Yahoo! was named, "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web." It has been said that the name which the company has eventually became to be known as was taken from a novel by Jonathan Swift titled Gulliver's travel that was published in 1726. The title of the book is officially known as "Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of several Ships." Considered a classic, the book is a satire on human nature.

It is here, that the now famous word: Yahoo, was taken and adopted to a unique and in 1994 a hungry and blooming upstart company. Within the Merriam - Webster dictionary the word yahoo is defined as a, "boorish, crass, or stupid person." It is with this identity that this company rose up from the ground and become a towering figure within the realm of international business.

Money Equals Drama
As one singer stated, "Mo' money, Mo' problems", and Yahoo is one company that has not been immune to such situations and the recent plot of Icahn to rid of the companies board is just another episode of Yahoo!'s most interesting and intriguing diary.

Author Resource:- Article provided by S-Proprietor.com. A website dedicated to entreprenuers, work at home business opportunities and resources.

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10 Most popular direct sales company

Direct sales companies have been with us for quite some time now. The way these have generally worked is that a direct sales associate would take their products to home based events where they would demonstrate them to attendees. So what are the most popular direct sales companies currently? This list will give you some direct sales companies to think about if you are interested in starting your own direct sales business.

1) Tupperware, first developed in 1945 had by 1946 moved to a direct sales model. This is the company who invented the party based model of direct sales as we know it. Tupperware now has nearly 2 million associates in nearly 100 countries worldwide.

2) Avon was once the California Perfume Company, back in 1886 when it began; by 1928, however, they had adopted the more familiar name of Avon. This is one of the most well known direct sales companies on Earth now, with almost 5 million representatives in 143 countries worldwide.

3) In 1963, Mary Kay Ash began Mary Kay Inc. in the interests of giving women an opportunity to improve their lives through running their own business. There are now around 1.6 representatives of the company.

4) Discovery Toys, Inc. has been in the educational toys business since 1978. This company only does business in the U.S. and Canada and uses the party model of direct sales.

5) Home Interiors & Gifts, now celebrating its 50th anniversary in business, boasts more than 100,000 associates employing both parties and face-to-face marketing methods to sell their products,

6) Pampered Chef has been around since 1980; this is one of the newest direct sales companies. They have over 60,000 Pampered Chef consultants worldwide and use their own variation on the party plan (the Kitchen Show).

7) Also started in 1980, Arbonne International sells their skin care products via person-to-person marketing instead of the party plan method.

8) Peter Usborne's Usborne Books has been around since 1973, selling high quality books for children. They employ person-to-person marketing as well as parties to market their books.

9) Creative Memories, a scrapbooking supply company, has been using the party plan method of marketing their products since 1987 and have tens of thousands of consultants all over the world.

10) Meleleuca, Inc. has been in the business of green products since 1985 and markets their tea tree oil based skin care, personal care and home products worldwide via person-to-person marketing. They are the fastest growing direct sales company in the U.S.

These direct sales companies are just ten out of the multitude of such companies out there which you can become involved with. Before signing on with any company, do some research to determine what their compensation model is, if online marketing is permissible and whether the company's goals fit in with your own.

Doing this sort of evaluation on each company you are considering will help you to be better informed and thus make a better decision about which direct sales company is right for you.

Author Resource:- Robert Paul Williams is the Editor of Work At Home Business Website. Come Visit Often To Stay Informed of the Latest Intenet Based Home Business News, Success Tips & Strategies.

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Creativity in Organization (Apple)

Apple Co can be indentified as a leader of creativity and innovation in global business environments. From early its start up it is already an innovative product line with introduction of GUI operating system that becomes envy to Microsoft to develop its own Windows later. Having financial problems in early 1990s because of declining Apple computer business, there are several rumors of bailout exist. Coming back of Steve Jobs already drive the company to be different from concentrating on PC business to become a true consumer electronics provider. There are few strategies that has transformed them to be a true leader in creativity and innovation:

• Apple ready to have something different from others even though market demand or response is not yet known. The design of iMac is innovative because it is different from conventional PC chassis design which is beige and dull black colors. It is built in translucent plastic exterior and the designer won the innovative awards for this brave move.

• Apple ready to take risk to join the fray in consumer electronics market by building IPod which happens to be best selling portable music player which is good in design, interface and acceptable pricing range. This helps to improve Apple’s sales plus the ITunes format has been instrumental to make Apple a leader in digital music downloading business. This is innovative approach of doing business as 10 years ago; Apple does not ever think it will become a major player in that area. Digital music business is big and the current cheap price will help people to drive the business and entertainment business to fight piracy as people are encourage to download originals.

• Seeing changes in world market and technology trend, Apple ready to change from norms in order to survive. Rather than focus on using Motorola or IBM processor, Intel processor has been use on Macintosh PC for better performance and suitability to current market demand. Apple knew Intel dominance and popularity is hard to beat and it choose the correct way to innovate its product line to suits Intel processor.

• Anticipating competition also drives Apple to be creative and innovate products that can help it maintain its lead. With introduction of better and larger flash memory on hand phone and so-called Nokia music phone can posed a threat to Apple’s IPod in long run. Apple began producing innovative IPhone which has both functionalities of music player and phone in one device. It is cheap and will pose competition to conventional mobile phone maker around the world.

Creativity
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Creativity in Organization (Philips)

Philips Electronics is one of the world most recognized and one of the largest consumer electronics, lighting and medical systems manufacturer which originated from Holland. Employing more than 14,500 peoples around the world and has reached sales of 27 billions euro in 2006 is really an astounding large firms to operate. During the course of history since it was formed by Gerard Philips in 1861, the company has been in forefront of new technology and certain product innovation that put the name of company high in world electronics consumer market. The innovations from Philips really change the way we enjoy, the way we live and the way we use this innovation in our daily life. Most notable products innovation from Philips is the compact cassette, compact disk and digital video disk. Few strategies that were used in Philips to make the true leader of creativity and innovation today are:

Constant improvement to current products

Philips is already a pioneer since 1963 as the first European company to do audio compact cassette as a media for audio storage. This is the important invention that popularizes the entertainment industry as cassette can record more efficiently that LP. Compact cassette is smaller and easier to bring than magnetic tape drive and introduction of complement products such as walkman has make this is the standard format in industry. While compact cassette still enjoys a popular success in the world in 1980s, Philips begins to improve the products even though it may end up cannibalizing its own current successful product. Philips collaborates with Sony to produce compact disk which has bigger storage and better audio quality retention and it becomes a popular music media surpassing compact cassette sales revenue now.

Focus on complementary
Philips focuses on dual use technology which is important and can be sold in 2 market segment. For example is introduction of compact disk and compact disk player by Philips. By introducing compact disk, Philips is also joining into production of compact disk player which is essential for its revenues. Dual use technology is good because Philips still can focus on its core technology royalty payment (CD) lets say it fail in CD player market thus it can still generating income for long term.

Philips Innovative Campus
The campus will be important to enhance and driving force behind the Philips innovation strategy that is significant for business growth and revenues opportunities. The design and product realization facilities are integrate into Philips business models.

Drive for technological leader.
Being a technological leader in new technology will enable us earning hefty amount of returns in copyrights. For example is the introduction of compact disk where Philips and Sony is earning a share for every pieces produce as their copyrights payment. Royalty payment for technological leader is not compensate them for their technological breakthrough which a lot of resources, knowledge and money has been invested and this can generated a long term cash flow t Philips annually whether its business is good or not.


Creative workforce does not face age barrier.
People in Philips are encourage to excel and contribute creatively no matter what their age is because each one of us is unique and our opinion will stand if it is suitable to the market needs.

Quotes for Creativity

Michelangelo: The marble not yet carved can hold the form of every thought the greatest artist has.

Joseph Conrad: The mind of man is capable of anything because everything is in it, all the past as well as the future.

James Broughton: The only limits are, as always, those of vision.

Charles F. Kettering: The opportunities of man are limited only by his imagination. But so few have imagination that there are ten thousand fiddlers to one composer.

Unknown Author: The poorest man is not without a cent, but without a dream.

John F. Kennedy: The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by skeptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need men who can dream of things that never were.

Albert Einstein: The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.

Dale Carnegie: The successful man will profit from his mistakes and try again in a different way.

Thomas G. Halliburton: The suspicious parent makes an artful child.

Eden Phillpotts: The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Algernon Charles Swinburne: To have read the greatest works of any great poet, to have beheld or heard the greatest works of any great painter or musician is a possession added to the best things in life.

Truman Capote: To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

William Blake: To see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower... hold infinity in the palm of your hand, and eternity in an hour...

George Kneller: To think creatively, we must be able to look afresh at what we normally take for granted.

Benjamin Disraeli: We are not creatures of circumstance; we are creators of circumstance.

Jack Welch: We know where most of the creativity, the innovation, the stuff that drives productivity lies - in the minds of those closest to the work.

Thomas Edison: What man's mind can create, man's character can control.

Albert Einstein: The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.

Harold R. McAlindon: The world leaders in innovation and creativity will also be world leaders in everything else.

Ralph Waldo Emerson: There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination.

DETERMINANT OF BANKS SERVICES SELECTION

DETERMINANT OF BANKS SERVICES SELECTION

Services quality
Numerous literature review on previous research shows that service quality is the most important factor that the consumer consider when choosing a bank of their choice. However, services are something tangible and not easy to measure as different people have different perception and expectation on the quality level. According to Angur, Natarajaan & Jaheera Jr (1999), quality in services plays an important role in industry that needs a lot of human encounter like banking services. Traditionally quality services are related to good long lasting relationship between banks and the customers. Quality services are necessary to achieve success and survival of baking industry that is full of competition. (Samli & Frohlich. 1992). This is the fact that changes in consumers that hunger for the best services and banks because exist of choices for them to choose. According to Brenda Lewis in her book’s Financial Service Marketing, the consumer nowadays begin to understand alternatives that available for product and services, organization that provides it and the increasing expectation of services quality. Higher expectation on quality causing them to be more critical when evaluating the services or products that received. Quality of services is critical for banking sector because the products offered are mostly homogeny and hard to be differentiated. That is why banks focus on maintaining long lasting relationship with its customers. (Stafford et al., 1994) According to Filotton, Tanzi & Saita (1997), banks need to provide good customer relationship in line with their expectation in order to fulfill their satisfaction and influence the choose the banking services. According to Bloemer, Ruyter & Peeters (1998) there is correlation between the quality of services and satisfaction & loyalty of the customers. It is true that a satisfied customer will be a loyal customer devoting to the same bank for a long period and will not change the bank unnecessary so it depends how the bank continue to take care of their customer base. According to Avkiran (1999), it is more costly to pull in one new customer than to maintain one existing customers by providing a quality services to them. Research by Huu & Kar (2000) where they used the literature review from Singapore Business (1992) also stated that banks today could not solely compete on pricing but in the context of service quality.

In depth literature review also shows that service quality is a very general variables because it service quality there are a lot of criteria that a customer will evaluate or have specific attention. Few early quality guru and researcher have categorized the service quality dimension in their models such as Parasuraman et.al, Crosby and Groonroos (1985). Parasuraman, Zeithamel and Berry (1988), three professors in marketing from Texas A&M University stated in their research the five dimension of service quality such as tangible, reliability, assurance, responsiveness and empathy. Groonroos come out with his five key service quality indicator such as professionalism & skills, reputation & credibility, behavior & attitude, accessibility & flexibility and lastly reliability & trustworthiness. Not all dimension stated by the researcher mention just now is totally the same but it has some criteria relatedness and same core in the dimension perception.

Even though service quality is not the main influence or factor that can be easily seen but Bradford (1999) said that service quality is the most important factor in choosing a bank but it is very subjective and normal customers will use experience and recommendation as a motivator to choose a bank. For example in a poor and developing country, service quality may not seem as important as the developed and advance nations. According to Frimpong (1999) in Ghana, service quality is not significant compare to safety of the cash fund for the consumer there and that is why there is no market segmentation in that country.

Quality Service
In evaluating the SERVQUAL model, 5 dimensions shows the variables of reliability, assurance, responsiveness, tangible and empathy. Reliability means the capability of provider to show performance of service quality that is consistent and correct. [Parasuraman et. Al, 1984] According to Parasuraman (1988), do not matter what quality of services we research, reliability is the most critical dimension and follows by other dimension. Dick & Basu (1994) also concluded that reliability and confidence is playing an important role in intangible dimension to maintain and build customer loyalties. Customer want reliable services because banks deal with their important asset and money. In one of the research by Anthony A. Alfred & H. Lon Adams, it was found that a lot of customers close their accounts with banks because there are error in recording done, few mistakes happened in transaction and failure of banks to admit the mistake or compensate for the error it has done to the customers. Customers will not tolerate inconsistency of services arises from poor management and problematic computer system that will impact their asset.

Tangible means something that is real, can be seen and feel. In service too there are some physical elements that can portray its products such as facilities, its workers, communication material and other tools or devices used in the works encounter with customers. (Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml). Parasurama et al. Leithnen & Lethinen (1988) stated that the quality of physical such as conveniences provided in the premises and other tools is one of three dimension of quality. For example some banks will hire good personality and good looking front line counter staff to attract the customers even though such aspect is not related to work performance. However this is the good strategy to build good perception that staff of the banks can provide good services. In Turkey, Yavas, Bilgin & Shemwell (1997) research showed that physical elements is important as banking customers will be more comfortable and satisfy if bank can provide conveniences such as air-condition and no-smoking allowed. James Poon (1998) stated that non verbal communication is one of the services customer looking for. He conclude that if banks can create environment or surrounding that welcome the custom, for example such as its design and interior design can give a positive perception.

Responsiveness is the swiftness and correctness of services provided by the provider. Avkiran (1994) study of Australian banking showed that responsiveness and credibility is the most important factor. James Poon (1994) stated that customers like to related quality of services and the responsive bank tellers or cashier as it is normal for human do not want to wait long. Study by Kangis & Voukelatos (1997) also support the claims because decrease of waiting time in counter is the most important thing customer evaluate on the service quality.
Assurance according to Parasuraman is knowledge and courtesy of workers in stimulating and building confidence of the customers (Foster, 2001). According to Galloway (1996) older customers needs more services from staff who are knowledgably on services than other group as they need more information before making decisions.
Empathy is service quality is special attention to customers with caring attitude and understanding of other’s needs (Foster, 2001). According to Lewis & Spyrakopolous (2001) customers want to see banks taking care of their problem and have considerable efforts to solve their problem. Yavas, Bilgin & Shemwell (1997) banks that can provide empathy service can create good relationship with customers and have good complaint receiving mechanism.

Rates
East Asian countries has high rate of savings compare to other nation. One of the motivator for savings is the rate offered by the bank. This was proven by research of Lunt (1994) which showed that Asian people doing any decision on keeping cheques or savings accounts are taking into consideration of rates. Huu & Kar (2000) in Singapore refers to research conducted by Javalgi et al (1989) and Khazeh & Decker (1992) shows that high rates giving second most heavy importance factors of choosing bank services. Higher income or medium household income value more on the rates given because they have more disposable income for savings compare to poorer household that will use large proportion of income towards basic requirement. (Boyd, Lornard. & White, 1994). Huu & Kar also study the behavior of Singaporean university students proven that interest rates is the factor they choose the bank and DBS Bank was choose by most of the students because it provides higher interest rates to savers. Boyd et. al also confirmed in his research that married couples are more interested in rates when choosing the bank than other groups.

Conveniences
Research by Joseph, McClure & Joseph (1999) shows that individual that age 41 years old and above more focus on importance of having suitable location, efficiency, electronic banking exposure, customer information system that is reliable, special services for old people and those who has special needs (such as disability) than the younger group of customers. The research also see the respondent give higher importance of usage of tele-banking services that can helps to solve the queuing long in counter problem and electronic banking will give more educational and reliable information to eager customers.

James Poon (1999) referring to one research in Turkey by Kaynak et al where customer who has secondary education and above will put facilities or conveniences in the form of fast and efficient services besides having knowledgeable staff, friendly staff and good location. James Poon also refer to Nicholas et al where dominate factor in satisfying the customers of the bank is time. Same goes to Malaysia where fast service and location are important element of choosing a bank because it saves the time of customers. Due to customer value time, the importance of having more counters, shorter processing time, ATM, operational hours and volume of staff available is important. Customers always tend to evaluate services by comparing to each other bank on the waiting time or counter efficiency. Hours of operation is one of aspect Mohammad Almossawi (2001) study in Bahrain and opening of bank in Friday is something appreciated by the customers, making that in Islamic country Friday is the holiday. However for Galloway and Blanchard (1996), youngster are more depending on ATM machines for withdrawal and other transaction compared to other people which is more dealing with the banks’ counter thus hours of operation is more important to other people.

Facilities and conveniences is not something to be unimportant to customer as Filotto, Tanzi & Saita (1997) study in Italy shows that a lot of Italian customers are running away from Italian back to foreign banks because foreign bank can provide better facilities than the local bank. Huu & Kar (2000) stated also facilities offered by banks is important to students because student want faster services and they evaluate banks service based on service provided by the staff. This is true especially some banks are providing only few staff causing counter jam and long processing time to the customers.

For conveniences, one of the factor do not miss look in choosing the bank is the factor of location. According to Lewis (1982) and Lewis & Bingham’s (1991) location can give impact to the customer as strategic located bank can ease the customer to go to the bank. Sub urban area is more comfortable as it is near the housing area and there is no problem such as high crime rate like in big cities, traffic jam and sound pollution. James Poon (1998) again using the research from Mehrabian (1976) stated that city sound pollution is not comfortable and causing stress, so factors on locating new banks branch will influence the customers who want to do business with the bank. However Kangis & Voukelatos (1997) research show a contradicted decision as they used the research from Wong & Perry (1991) which claims that location is not anymore important as banks nowadays have branches almost at any important spot or location.

Reputation
Reputation is one of the factor that was given attention by the customer when choosing the bank especially those who are status conscious and youngsters. Boyd et al (1994) found that those who are age below 21 years old and below giving attention to reputation of the bank follow by the location, interest rates in saving account and fast and correct services. Besides Boyd study other researches from Haron et al., 1994; Javalgi et al., 1989; Kazeh and Decker, 1993; Yuen and Tom, 1995; and Erol et al.,1990 also shown the same indicators on the bank reputation.
Youngster are more brand conscious and they would like to choose for product and services that has reputable name, so same as choosing a banking services. Banks can build its reputation by filling the gap between itself and customers expectation by doing a lot of public relation activities, promotion, advertising and social welfare activities or campaign. According to Mohammed Almossawi (2001) this type of campaign can strengthen the brand name of a bank. Youngster are giving more attention to status and social class and peer influence is important when choosing something that represent themselves in the public eyes. McDougall & Levesque (1994) also agree that good marketing and public relationship is an agent to bridge the bank and customers and attract them to choose and maintain the services. Differentiation of the banking services compare to its competitors can distinguish itself and hold attention of the market.

Safety
Safety of the banking services become a concern to the customers when choosing a bank and reputation has some relation to the feel of safety by the customers. In Frimpong study (1999) in Ghana, sample of study age over 60 years old mostly are poor farmers keep their money in own house because not confidence with banking system and government. This is maybe due to macro political scenario and according to Frimpong the cheques are not widely used because it was not consider trustworthy mechanism compare to cash. In Australia, Rugimbana & Iversen (1994) explained that customer fear the reputation of bank not up to standard because the ATM card safety. For Martin (2002) privacy is the most important aspect that the bank customers looking at in the modern banking industry nowadays.

Using technology in banking has caused a lot of issue that giving anxiety to the customers on the safety. We have heard a lot of online fraud, ATM theft, identity theft on credit cards and more in the news. According to Joseph, McClure & Joseph (1999), 22% of the respondent want to see improvement in safety of ATM in the whole banking industry. For example they want banks to install good lighting on ATM machines and data is protected by the technology fraud cases. Banks information is very sensitive and confidential and protection of customer data integrity is a must responsibility of the bank. Customer will not believe the banking services if they do not have equip themselves with capable technology to prevent frauds and theft.

Pricing
Pricing in the banks is not widely discuss as most bank will have almost the same pricing but a differentiated services as pricing is almost regulated by the Bank Negara. According to Mourinho & Meiden (1989) on the price sensitive customers, interest rate that is too high will give negative impact on the usage rate of credits and loyalty of customers towards bank. High rate of taking loans will cause customers to look for other bank. Filotto, Tanzi & Saita (1997) do not push out the importance of banks to provide good conveniences and technological facilities to customer but it should be done at a reasonable pricing. Kennington et al (1996) stated that pricing of services or product should be reasonable so that customer may feel that they do earn something from the relationship with the bank.

However not all researcher giving the importance of bank pricing as important in decision of choosing a banks. According to Zineldin (1996) due to banks giving unique services compare to other industry, cost and pricing is not important is this field. Most important is the rate is still in the range as regulated by the central bank and giving too low rate can cause the bank profitability compare to competitors. Of all the independent variables as stated by the previous researcher it seems that services quality of the bank is the most important variable of choosing a banks making the facts that banks offered unique services to the customers. The six most important variables – service quality, conveniences, saving rates, pricing, safety and reputation will be taken as variables for analysis in this research in Penang , Malaysia.


REFERENCES
(For non commercial purposes)


Bank Selection in Poland




Bank Selection in Bahrain




Customer preferences of bank selection





Bank Selection in Singapore

How leaders influence employees’ innovative behaviour

How leaders influence employees’

innovative behaviour

Jeroen P.J. de Jong
EIM Small Business Research and Consultancy, Zoetermeer,
The Netherlands, and
Deanne N. Den Hartog
University of Amsterdam Business School, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Purpose – To provide an inventory of leader behaviors likely to enhance employees’ innovative
behaviour, including idea generation and application behavior.
Design/methodology/approach – Based on a combination of literature research and in-depth interviews, the paper explores leadership behaviors that stimulate employees’ idea generation and application behavior. The study was carried out in knowledge-intensive service firms (e.g. consultants, researchers, engineers).
Findings – It was found that there were 13 relevant leadership behaviors. Although innovative
behaviour is crucial in such firms, it has received very little attention from researchers. Leaders
influence employees’ innovative behaviour both through their deliberate actions aiming to stimulate idea generation and application as well as by their more general, daily behaviour.
Research limitations/implications – Future quantitative research could condense our overview of leader practices, explore which practices are most relevant to employees’ idea generation and/or application behaviour, which contingency factors influence the leadership-innovative behaviour connection and provide information as to whether different practices are relevant in other types of firms.
Originality/value – Neither the innovation nor the leadership field provides a detailed overview of specific behaviors that leaders might use to stimulate innovation by individual employees. This paper fills that void.
Keywords Leadership, Innovation, Employee behaviour, Ideas generation, Knowledge organizations
Paper type Research paper


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Optimum Strategies for Creativity and Longevity

Optimum Strategies for Creativity and Longevity

By Sing Lin, Ph.D. 林星雄 博士

Member of National Council of
Chinese Institute of Engineers – USA/Greater New York Chapter, and
Member of Board of Director of
National Taiwan University Alumni Association – Greater New York
March 2002

1. Most Creative Years in the Life

The Nobel Laureate, Dr. Leo Esaki, delivered the distinguished lecture entitled "Innovation and Evolution: Reflections on a Life in Research" in the University of Texas at Dallas in the afternoon of Feb. 23, 2002 during the 2002 US National Engineering Week. In this lecture, Dr. Esaki indicated that most of the great discoveries and innovations by the Nobel Laureates occurred at the average age of 32 even though the Nobel prizes were awarded 10 or 20 years afterwards. Furthermore, Dr. Esaki indicated that the peak creativity of most scientists occurred around the age range of 20 to 30 years. As one gets older, the experience increases but the creativity decreases steadily with the age.

It is, therefore, very important to stimulate, encourage and cultivate many young people to get interested in science and engineering at their young age and to provide the optimal R&D environment for these very powerful young scientists and engineers to unleash their very strong creativities during their most precious and creative years around the age of 32.

2. Longevity Vs. Retirement Age

The pension funds in many large corporations (e.g., Boeing, Lockheed Martin, AT&T, Lucent Technologies, etc.) have been “Over Funded” because many “late retirees” who keep-on working into their old age and retire late after the age of 65 tend to die within two years after their retirements. In other words, many of these late retirees do not live long enough to collect all their fair shares of pension money such that they leave a lot of extra-unused money in the pension funds resulting in the over-funded pension funds.

Dr. Ephrem (Siao Chung) Cheng provided the important results in the following Table 1 and the associated chart from an actuarial study of life span vs. age at retirement. The study was based on the number of pension checks sent to retirees of Boeing Aerospace.


Table 1 – Actuarial Study of life span vs. age at retirement.

Age at
Retirement Average Age
At Death
49.9 86
51.2 85.3
52.5 84.6
53.8 83.9
55.1 83.2
56.4 82.5
57.2 81.4
58.3 80
59.2 78.5
60.1 76.8
61 74.5
62.1 71.8
63.1 69.3
64.1 67.9
65.2 66.8


















Table 1 and the chart indicate that for people retired at the age of 50, their average life span is 86; whereas for people retired at the age of 65, their average life span is only 66.8. An important conclusion from this study is that for every year one works beyond age 55, one loses 2 years of life span on average.

The Boeing experience is that employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 18 months, on average, prior to death. Similarly, the Lockheed experience is that employees retiring at age of 65 receive pension checks for only 17 months, on average, prior to death. Dr. David T. Chai indicated that the Bell Labs experience is similar to those of Boeing and Lockheed based on the casual observation from the Newsletters of Bell Lab retirees. A retiree from Ford Motor told Dr. Paul Tien-Lin Ho that the experience from Ford Motor is also similar to those in Boeing and Lockheed.

The statistics shown in the Pre-Retirement Seminar in Telcordia (Bellcore) indicates that the average age that Telcordia (Bellcore) employees start retirement is 57. Therefore, people who retire at the age of 65 or older are minority as compared to the number of early retirees.

The hard-working late retirees probably put too much stress on their aging body-and-mind such that they are so stressed out to develop various serious health problems that forced them to quit and retire. With such long-term stress-induced serious health problems, they die within two years after they quit and retire.

On the other hand, people who take early retirements at the age of 55 tend to live long and well into their 80s and beyond. These earlier retirees probably are either wealthier or more able to plan and manage their various aspects of their life, health and career well such that they can afford to retire early and comfortably.

These early retirees are not really idling after their early retirements to get old. They still continue doing some work. But they do the work on the part-time basis at a more leisure pace so that they do not get too stressed out. Furthermore, they have the luxury to pick and chose the types of part-time work of real interest to them so that they can enjoy and love doing that “fun” work at a more leisure pace.

The late retirees are small in number, tend to die quickly after retirement and disappear from the population of old people beyond the age of 70. Late retirees, therefore, have very little weight on the statistical average life expectancy of the population of “old people” dominated by the early retirees.

Several years ago, a Japanese friend of mine told me that most Japanese people retire at the age of 60 or earlier. This may be one of the factors contributing to the long average life span of Japanese people.


3. Changing Trend of US Pension Plans

The traditional pension plans of many major US companies used to place a lot of value on the experience of long-term older employees by increasing the pension money rapidly and nonlinearly for long-term employees as their age + service year increases beyond the threshold of the rule of 75. Most long-term employees cross this critical threshold at about the age of 55. On the other hand, the early retirees incur very heavy penalty in pension and in other associated retiree benefits (e.g., employer paid medical insurance, employer paid life insurance, death benefits for family, etc.) when they retire before they meet the rule of 75.

However, in recent few years, many large US corporations are switching from their traditional retirement pension plans to the new portable Cash Balance Plans. The new portable cash balance plans are much more favorable to the younger employees but are very unfavorable to the long-term older employees. Some older long-term employees found that when their employers switched from the traditional pension plans to the cash balance plan, their pensions were reduced by 30% to 50%.

One of the implications of this trend towards the new cash balance plan is that the US corporations are now placing more value on the higher creativity and adaptability of younger employees and less value on the experience of the older employees. This is consistent with the accelerating pace of innovations and technology advances. The creative and dynamic younger employees are better positioned, than the older employees do, to keep up with the faster pace of technology advances.


4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The most precious, creative and innovative period in your life is the 10-year period around the age of 32. Plan your career path to use this precious 10-year period wisely and effectively to produce your greatest achievements in your life.

The pace of innovations and technology advances is getting faster and faster and is forcing everybody to compete fiercely at the Internet speed on the information super-highways. The highly productive and highly efficient workplace in USA is a pressure-cooker and a high-speed battleground for highly creative and dynamic young people to compete and to flourish.

However, when you get older, you should plan your career path and financial matter so that you can retire comfortably at the age of 55 or earlier to enjoy your long, happy and leisure retirement life into your golden age of 80s and beyond. In retirement, you can still enjoy some fun work of great interest to you and of great values to the society and the community, but at a part-time leisure pace on your own term.

On the other hand, if you are not able to get out of the pressure-cooker or the high-speed battleground at the age of 55 and “have” to keep on working very hard until the age of 65 or older before your retirement, then you probably will die within 18 months of retirement. By working very hard in the pressure cooker for 10 more years beyond the age of 55, you give up at least 20 years of your life span on average.

Lean Manufacturing Terminology

Lean Terminology

• Andon lights / boards: A visual control device in a production area.
• Autonomation: automation with a human touch. Refers to semi-automatic processes where the operator and machine work together. Autonomation allows man-machine separation. Also referred to as Jidoka.
• Balanced production: all operations or cells produce at the same cycle time. In a balanced system, the cell cycle time is less than takt time.
• Error-proofing: designing a potential failure or cause of failure out of a product or process.
• Flow manufacturing: a manufacturing methodology that pulls items from suppliers through a synchronized manufacturing process to the end product. The principle goal is faster response to customer demand.
• Hoshin Kanri: A strategic planning approach that integrates the practices of leadership with the practices of management.
• Kaizen: Japanese term for incremental improvement. A team approach to quickly tear down and rebuild a process layout to function more efficiently.
• Kanban: techniques named after the Japanese word for card or communication. Stocking technique using containers, cards and electronic signals to make production systems respond to real needs and not predictions and forecasts.
• Just-in-Time (JIT): manufacturing method where downstream operations pull required parts needed from upstream operations at the required time. Implementing JIT requires most features of lean manufacturing.
• Mistake-proofing: any change to an operation that helps the operator reduce or eliminate mistakes.
• Muda: Anything that interrupts the flow of products and services through the value stream and out to the customer is designated muda - or waste.
• One piece flow: Producing one unit at a time, as opposed to producing in large lots.
• Poka-Yoke: Techniques to mistake-proof a process.
• 6 Sigma: A structured process improvement program for achieving virtually zero defects (3.4 parts per million) in manufacturing and business processes.
• Standard operations: Clearly defined operations and standardized steps for both workers and machines.
• Takt time: Takt is German for pace. Takt time defines the manufacturing line speed and the cycle times for all manufacturing operations. Takt time is computed as: Available work time per day / daily required demand (parts/day).
• Value Stream Mapping: A process to determine the value added to a product as it goes through a manufacturing process.

PESTLE Mcdonald's

PESTLE Analysis

POLITICAL
The operations of McDonalds are affected by the government policies on the regulations of fast food operation. Currently government are controlling the marketing of fast food restaurant because of health concern such as cardiovascular and cholesterol issue and obesity among the young and children in the country. Governments also control the license given for open the fast food restaurant and other business regulation need to follow such as for a franchise business. Good relationship with government in giving mutual benefits such as employment and tax is a must for the company to succeed in any foreign market. McDonalds should also protect its workers by ensuring all the hiring, compensation, training or repatriation is according to Malaysian Labor Law as stipulated.


ECONOMICS
As a business entity, McDonalds need to face a lot of economic variables outside its company or its macro environment. Dealing with international sourcing for its material McDonalds should be aware on the global supply and currencies exchange. Remember, McDonalds import most of its raw material such as beef and potatoes due to local market cannot supply in abundant to meet the demand of its product. Any upside of currencies especially dollar will be impacting its cost of purchase.

Working on the local country, McDonalds must face government regulations on tax of profit where it gains from the operation and other tax such as entertainment and restaurant service tax. Each country may have different scale or types of tax available and McDonalds should follow the regulation if it wants to continue the operation. As a franchise, McDonalds should also pay certain percentage of the revenue to the parent company in United States.
The economic condition and growth of the country also is an important indicator to the demand of products that McDonalds offered. As the food priced slightly above normal foods, not many people will have the income range to consume the products. Moreover if the economy is bad and income percapita is affected, the demand of McDonalds product will certainly going down. On the other hand the good economy also means disposable income is more and people can spend more on more expensive food at fast food restaurant.


SOCIAL / CULTURAL
The changing lifestyles of Malaysia due to development of Malaysian economy should be also taking into consideration. While more people are able financially to eat at more expensive outlet such as fast food restaurant, they have higher expectation. They want to have quality in services and more conveniences that can differentiate one restaurant from another. Young urban consumers want technology in their life and facilities such as credit card payment, wireless internet, cozy and relaxing ambient place, and other attraction for their hangout and eating. All these needs should also be taken into consideration. There is not much difference between cultural and the purchase of products in a single country but for different countries cultural sensitivity should be upheld. For example in India people (Hindu) do not take beef, Muslim countries do not take pork, German like beers, Finnish like fish type of food menu, Chinese like to associate food with something good (for example prosperity), Asian like rice and Americans eat in big-sized menu. So far McDonalds has shown good efforts in localization of its menu to suit local taste but it should constantly survey and learn about local culture to better understand and design the best product for them.

TECHNOLOGY
For a fast food restaurant, technology does not give a very high impact on the company and it is not a significant macro environment variables. However McDonalds should be looking to competitors innovation and improve itself in term of integrating technology in managing its operation. For example in inventory system, supply chain management system to manage its supply, easy payment and ordering systems for its customers and wireless internet technology. Implementation of technology can make the management more effective and cost saving in the long term. This will also make customer happy if cost savings results in price reduction or promotional campaign discount which will benefits them from time to time.


LEGAL
As a certified fast food operator, there are many regulations and procedures that McDonalds should follow. For example is the Halal certification that becomes a concern to Muslim consumers. McDonalds should protect its integrity and consumer confidence by ensuring all materials and process are as claimed or must followed.
Other legal requirement that the business owner should follow as stipulated in laws are such as operating hours, business registration, tax requirement, labor and employment laws and quality & environment certification (such as ISO) in which the outlet has been certified. The legal requirement is important because the offenders will be fined or have their business prohibited from operating which can be disastrous.

ENVIRONMENT
As one of world largest consumer of beef, potatoes and chicken, McDonalds always had been critics for world environmentalist. This is because high consumption of beef causing the green house effect by methane gasses coming from the cow’s ranch. Large scale plantation has effect the environment and lost of green forest opening for plantation activities. Vegetarian environmentalist criticizes the fast-food giant for cruelty to animals and slaughtering. In Japan, once McDonalds want to introduce whale burger causing uproar because whales are endangered species. Before using paper packaging, once McDonalds also had been criticized for being insensitive to pollution because using polystyrene based packaging for its foods. Imagine millions of people purchase from fast food operator and how is the impact to world environment by throwing away those hard to recycle packaging. Our world is getting concern on environment issue and business operating here should not just care for profit, but careful usage of world resources for sustainable development and care for environment safety and health for our future generation. Critics and concern from all public or activist should be review and support if necessary to ensure we play our social responsibility better.

Transitory JIT at Proton Cars, Malaysia

Case study: transitory JIT at Proton Cars, Malaysia

This paper investigates the application and adaptability of just-in-time (JIT) in
the largest Malaysian automobile manufacturing company (Proton). The main
objective of this paper is to develop an understanding of a Malaysian version of
JIT in its automobile industry and to examine the concept of JIT in a Malaysian
manufacturing setting. This is especially interesting and important since
Malaysia has not gone through the usual stages of a craft era (labour intensive,
highly-skilled workers) followed by Fordism (mass production of single
products, semi-skilled workers) and post-Fordism (mass customisation, multiskilled
workers) (see Wilson, 1992). Although, some might argue that they have
actually gone through these stages but over a very short time, thus giving scope
to manufacturing management for a variety of approaches (Womack et al.,
1990). There are other ways of looking at the development of manufacturing
and operations management (Monks, 1987; Sykes et al., 1997). For example,
Monks (1987) suggests a framework based on US experiences with a Handicraft
era (circa 1700-1800), Industrial Revolution (circa 1800-1890), Scientific
Management era (1890-1940) and Operations Research and Computerised
Systems era (1940-present). However, these ideas seem even less applicable to
developments at Proton.
The secondary objectives of this paper are to:
• Determine the amount of JIT activity in the company.
• Look at the structure of the buyer-supplier relationships that support the
JIT system.
• Draw out the factors that support and hinder the successful
implementation of JIT in the company.
• Identify where the Malaysian version of JIT differs, if indeed it does, from
the conventional Japanese form of JIT.

Mike Simpson, Geoff Sykes and Adini Abdullah
Sheffield University Management School, Sheffield, UK



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